A demonstration of the SALSA, AAUW’s database program

A panel discussion by AAUW Student Affiliates

A Public Policy update, including a summary of the activities at the 2014 legislative session.

Our conference registration will be $20, and will include breakfast and lunch.

The hotel has reserved a room block for us at the rate of $99 for either a single king
bed or two queen-size beds, which will allow people to share rooms if they choose.

We are going to run a room raffle this year, and one lucky winner will get their room and conference registration for free!

The registration form for this event is in this newsletter  We will also put it on the GA AAUW website, and we hope that branches with websites will provide a link to the form.  Marlene Humphry will be handling the registrations and will have her preferred contact information included.

We want to remind everyone that you do get reimbursed for your mileage to this conference.

We hope to have a good turnout.  Many of our branches have been doing really excellent events this year, and this is the best opportunity we have to compare notes with each other and work together to make AAUW stronger and more visible going forward.  We hope to see all of you on March 28-29.!

Bea Piddock beapiddock@earthlink.net
Diana Witt  diana.witt@comcast.net 
Georgia AAUW Co-Presidents

Spring Convention

Greetings everyone!  I hope you are all staying warm and did not suffer too heavily during our recent Snowpocalypse.  Our annual Georgia AAUW Convention will take place this year at the Hilton Garden Inn, 24 Liberty Drive, Cartersville, GA.  The hotel is close to historic downtown Cartersville, off Exit 288 on Highway 75.  The Cartersville Branch has graciously offered to prepare a social event for Friday night.  This will be followed by a day-long program of events on Saturday.  Breakfast will start at 8, and we will start our meeting at 9 AM on Saturday morning. We plan to end the conference at around 4 PM on Saturday afternoon.

We are going to run a room raffle this year, and one lucky winner will get their room and conference registration for free!

The registration form for this conference may be found by following this link.

You will also find a report from our Public Policy Chair, Deb Karvey.  She has been very busy this year, enhancing AAUW’s visibility in advocating for policies and legislation that impact Georgia women and girls and their families.  Many metro area AAUW members will be attending Lobby Days on Feb. 5 and 12, and we will report on our experiences at the Spring Convention.  Deb and I participated in a telephone conference with National and Regional representatives on Friday, January 31, to update them on our efforts here, and to strategize on how will move forward with our issues after the legislative session ends.    A lot of the telephone conference discussion centered around programming for our convention.  In addition to a public policy update, the program will include the following:

Our annual business meeting.

A demonstration of the SALSA, AAUW’s database program.  While access to the Salsa at the branch level is currently restricted, we want to show you how this program can help both branches and the state to manage their membership information.  Most importantly, we want to be able to help branches create special groups and email lists for different functions, and in future to be able to use this tool to conduct branch business online, including e-voting.

A panel discussion by AAUW Student Affiliates, and possibly a representative from our partnership organization, the Young Women’s Task Force.  We want to share with branches what AAUW Student Affiliates want to gain from membership in AAUW.  If any branch would like to invite students from their area to attend the conference, we will be happy to offer them free registration and meals.  Just let us know.

We want to remind everyone that you do get reimbursed for your mileage to this conference.

We hope to have a good turnout.  Many of our branches have been doing really excellent events this year, and this is the best opportunity we have to compare notes with each other and work together to make AAUW stronger and more visible going forward.  We hope to see all of you on March 28-29.!

Bea Piddock beapiddock@earthlink.net
Diana Witt  diana.witt@comcast.net 
Georgia AAUW Co-Presidents

Georgia AAUW Public Policy

Recent Events in Metro Atlanta

Bea Piddock, Debbie Karvey and Diana Witt (GA AAUW Co-Presidents and GA AAUW Public Policy Chair, respectively) attended Cartersville Branch Legislative Forum on January 14^th at the Bartow Health Center.Paul Battles, District Representative, addressed the attendees on 2014 Georgia General Assembly challenges.Questions were also posed about Family Care Act, gun control, Medicaid expansion and local benefit services.Cartersville AAUW members, family and residents attended this event.

On Saturday, January 25^th, Cobb AAUW Co-Sponsored with LWV of Marietta-Cobb and the local chapter of AKA Sorority an informative town hall on marketplace resources for Affordable Care Act health coverage and Medicaid expansion in Georgia.The event took place at the central library in Marietta and big thanks go out to Linda Thomas of LWVMC who organized the event and special thanks go out to our members who assisted at the event:Yetta McMillan, Marie Shockley, Amy Stevens, and Rita Neal. On the panel were Marie’s daughter, Karen Shockley, Cover Georgia and Timothy Sweeney, Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. Also in attendance were Elizabeth Poythress and Kelli Persons of LWV of Georgia.There was a great turnout on a cold January afternoon.